Shvil Hasalat

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Rachel

‘Never thought I’d get to post in this group but I am enjoying the most wonderful place called shvil hasalat in eshkol (northern negev) for slightly older kids (I’d say 8 and over) where you can pick and taste salad vegetables and fruit. There is a passion fruit maze and purple carrots to taste! They do tours appropriate for families too.’

Description:

They say:

The Salad Trail would like to invite you to an unforgettable experience in the greenhouses of the Habsor region in the northern Negev.
The tour is planned and guided by the agronomist Uri Alon (a specialist in international agriculture.) Uri is assisted by team of professional guides, who are fluent in several languages and adept at working with differing age groups.
You will observe the most up to date agricultural technologies- the “high tech” of agriculture. At every stop of the tour you will receive an explanation followed by you actually picking and eating your fruit right away!

On the tour you will encounter a wide variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables:

The Tomato Greenhouse: How come the tomatoes grow upwards? Why are there enormous bees here? You will pick and eat colorful tomatoes and small peppers and tasty cucumbers.

The Greenhouse of flying strawberries: Why do they grow in the air? Who are the strawberries’ bio-engineered friends? You will learn about the water, the special soil used and, of course, taste the fruit.

The Orchard of Chinese Oranges: Did you know that all of the orchards from the Sharon area were moved to the Negev? You will make Hawaiian style necklaces from Chinese oranges!

Racing of homing pigeons: Once these pigeons were the e-mail of the ancient world. Which is the fastest bird? You will send your messages and wishes on the legs of our homing pigeons.

The Herbal Greenhouse of fresh medical herbs: Green medicinal herbs that are not only for eating – you will touch and smell and learn about their essential oils.

“Pitot on the Saj”: We will bake pitot with zaatar and olive oil. (A saj is a Bedouin oven covered by mud.)

You will explore a genuine maze from passion fruit while picking and eating on your way!

The Field of Carrots: You will learn the history of the carrot and then find and collect orange, white, yellow and purple carrots

There might be changes due to the agricultural season.

The tour lasts 2-3.5 hours. The tour is suited to all ages and all the yearly seasons

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5.0

Ruth Kilner‎

Went to shvil hasalat today.
Kids (13, 11, 10) admitted to not being super excited about it when I first told them that Id booked tickets (partly the 2-hour drive from Jerusalem), but said afterwards that they’d all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tours are available in English and Hebrew, and we even had a choice of times for the English tours. Tours need to be booked in advance. It’s a long way to go to be told that they’re full and you need to turn round and go home.
Took a small picnic to eat before, but we’re big fruit/veg eaters anyway, and could easily have done without the picnic.
Learned about different technology and innovations in farming, bio bees, drip irrigation, upcycling, ate different types of tomatoes, cucumbers, (not brae enough to try the spicy peppers), various coloured carrots, oranges, kumquats, strawberries, various greens,
When it’s not pesach, you can make pittot (as you do in just about every attraction in this country!!).
Then we learned about homing pigeons, and some of the kids let them loose at one side of the farm, so they’d make their way to… the other side of the farm.
Stopped off at ben and jerry’s in Beer Tuvia to break up the drive home.

Went to Shvil Hasalat today, booked a tour online (50ns each) it took 1.5 hrs from beit shemesh, no traffic. Went with kids aged 11-18. tour was 2.5hrs and involved visiting different stations around the farm. really informative and interesting – saw how they grow strawberries raised in the air, tasted yum herbs, picked orange, white and purple carrots (who knew?) and potatoes. Ate different varieties of cherry tomatoes and learned about pigeons and their homing instincts. My older kids were a bit put off initially b/c all the kids in our group were about 7 and under but i think (hope) they enjoyed it. On way out we stopped at the playground, next to it was a grass football pitch with goals, kids loved it. we spent ages chilling there.

Recommend shvil hasalat down south for interesting educational kid friendly activity – we booked an English tour, learned lots and kids had great fun picking different coloured carrots, different herbs and potatoes .

Absolutely wonderful experience. Ever eaten a yellow carrot or seen all the 20 tomato varieties israel has developed. You can stop for a coffee/Druze pita at havat Phillip before beer sheva. Besor nature reserve is near shvil hasalat.